Use Of Force podcast / TV

Filmmaker turned narrator, Sarah Hatherley introduces us to Brigid, an ex NSW police investigator recruited into the brotherhood at the start of the 1990s Royal Commission into police corruption. Together they unpack the circumstances that, 16 years later, landed her in a live-in police PTSD ward in a rural psychiatric hospital attempting to revive her shattered career.

Listen to the complete 6 episode USE OF FORCE podcast series click here. 

Sarah has teamed up with producing powerhouse Mark Fennessy of Helium Pictures to develop Sarah’s Use of Force 6 episode premium crime drama series.

When Sarah first met the ex-cop at the heart of Use of Force, she was shocked to hear Brigid describe a world of violence, intimidation and lawlessness – and that was just in the office.

Working together to unpack Brigid’s experiences, Sarah’s first impulse was to approach the project as a scripted drama. And so began a series of long interstate phone conversations unpacking the truth before cloaking it in fiction to protect Brigid’s true identity in the hopes that her ex colleagues wouldn’t come after her.

What followed were 18 months of intimate phone conversations with a woman who was nearly destroyed by the police brotherhood. A toxic mix of corruption, misogyny and high-risk offenders.

Never intended for release, COVID lock-down saw the TV series project stall, and so Brigid bravely agreed to release those gut wrenching phone calls as a podcast. A process that proved both cathartic and validating.